Basseterre: Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica has strongly denounced NATO military action in Libya and voiced unequivocal support for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the ongoing military campaign.

Speaking at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) heads of government meeting in St Kitts, Skerrit denounced NATO action against free Libya and expressed the full solidarity of the government and people of Dominica with the Libyan people and their Leader Muammar Gaddafi.

“We are ready to offer all assistance which you need to support the Libyan people… and I myself am proud of the relationship I have with the Leader Muammar Gaddafi, he said. He also expressed his support to the African initiative.

Skerrit however did not elaborate on the type of assistance that he was ready togive to the Libyan leader and people.

Skerrit’s remarks came as the heads of state of CARICOM openly condemned what they referred to as white racist aggression against Libya and called for an immediate halt to this aggression.

The heads of state pointed to what they referred to as NATO’s indiscriminate targeting of civilians in residential areas and called for an immediate halt to the aggression, claiming that it was a violation of the UN Security Council resolution which was aimed at protecting civilians.

Current Chairman of CARICOM, the Prime Minister of St Kitts, said the group understood the roots of the plot being hatched against Libya because of its pro-Africa policies and its oil potential.

The head of the Republic of Moldova’s Communist Party, former President Vladimir Voronin, yesterday criticised President Traian Basescu’s recent comments about the Second World War and demanded that the EU publicly denounce the Romanian head of state for his words, Pro TV Chisinau reported.

In a TV show on June 22, President Basescu said he would have done the same as Marshal Ion Antonescu did during the war, when joining Germany in invading the Soviet Union. “We had an ally and we had a territory to recover (e.n. Moldova). If I had faced the same conditions I would have done it,” Basescu argued.

“The president of a EU member state labelled as correct the actions of a war criminal and Nazi executioner, Antonescu, by whose actions more than 300,000 people were exterminated,” Voronin said yesterday.

Basescu’s comments were fiercely criticised by the opposition and large parts of the public, but also by Russia, which said the head of state was practically trying to justify his country’s decision to join the war against the Soviet Union on Hitler’s side. Moreover, it was reported that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also had some very tough comments on Basescu during the NATO-Russia council earlier this week. Asked to comment on the reports, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen refused.

“President Medvedev talks about this matter in a confidential diplomatic framework and in the terms appropriate for this framework. The Romanian envoy to NATO replied in the same framework and the same terms,” he said. NATO envoy Sorin Ducaru too refused to make any comments.

CHISINAU: Moldova’s former President Vladimir Voronin on Thursday expressed surprise over the absence of reaction on the part of the European Union to the remarks made by Romanian President Trajan Basescu regarding Hitler’s aggression against the USSR in 1941.

Basescu said earlier this week he would have sent Romanian soldiers to take part in the occupation of the USSR along with Hitler’s forces in 1941.

Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu did send Romanian troops to war against the Soviet Union in June 1941.

‘We’re indignant over Basescu’s statement,” Vladimir Voronin said Thursday as he met in Chisinau with European Council President Herman van Rompuy. “In actual fact, Basescu, who is president of an EU member-state, justified the war criminal and butcher Antonescu, whose immediate involvement – in the punitive operations – took away the lives of more than 300,000.”

“Now Basescu says that if he had been in Antonescu’s position seventy years ago, he, too, would have ordered the troops to cross the river Prut,” Voronin said.

CONSTANTA, Romania: Azerbaijani, Bulgarian, Georgian, Romanian, Ukrainian and U.S. diving teams met last week in Constanta, Romania, for the engagement event Eurasian Partnership (EP) Dive 2011, co-hosted by the Romanian and U.S. navies.

The exercise was able to determine the progress made by NATO allies and partners towards diving interoperability and training, manning and equipment capabilities.

Master Chief Navy Diver Kelly Polk was convinced that the international meet with four Black Sea and one Caspian Sea country was an excellent opportunity to extend the international relations and goodwill of the U.S. Navy.

…

The participants left EP Dive 2011 aligned in its vision and approach to collective security. Engagements like this better equip the participating nations to address the full range of security challenges of the Black Sea Region.

…

This was the second international event for Company 26 this month, after the exercise Sea Breeze 2011 in Sevastopol, Ukraine.

VELIKO TARNOVO, Bulgaria…Marines with Black Sea Rotational Force 11’s NCO Development detachment is showing parts of the world what it means to be an NCO by recently finishing their fourth stop in their eight-country tour to advise the importance of NCO leadership to partner nations.

“In the counterinsurgency environment we are operating in [today] it’s important to develop NCOs and allow them to make the decision to drive the battle at a lower level,” said Lt. Col. Nelson S. Cardella, commanding officer, BSRF-11.

“It’s the only way we’re going to win and training other nations is very important,” said Cardella, “That’s why we’re here.”

Each participating country has re-evaluated how they use their NCO corps, how they are trained and the responsibility that is given at that level.

“NCO leadership still varies a lot, from some countries that follow the old Soviet-style and hold most of the power in the commissioned ranks, to other countries that have already progressed to where sergeants make a lot of decisions,” said First Sgt. Gerry M. Amundson, first sergeant, BSRF-11.

“We are not only here teaching but learning how every country does what they do so we can operate better as a multi-national force,” added the Port Townsen, Wash., native.

….

The two-week courses focus on advising in core-values of the Marine NCO, small-unit leadership, decision-making ability, leadership traits, leading troops and military professionalism and proficiency. In most cases, the Marines conduct their training to NCO instructors from foreign militaries to supplement already existing leadership training programs.

…

The most recent training was conducted in Bulgaria, where Marines advised Bulgarian NCO instructors from the Bulgarian Land Forces NCO College.

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The Marines have been traveling around the Black Sea, Balkan and Caucasus regions of Eastern Europe since April providing the NCO development course to the participating Eastern European countries who have requested it. They have conducted NCO-development training with Romania, Serbia, Azerbaijan and Bulgaria with future stops in Georgia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Macedonia.

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Black Sea Rotational Force is a rotational deployment of Marines to the Black Sea, Balkan and Caucasus regions of Eastern Europe to participate in security cooperation to build military capacity, provide regional stability, and develop lasting partnerships with nations in the region. BSRF-11 will be operating as a Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force until September of this year.

Bulgaria and Israel are going to hammer our agreements for close cooperation in defense, their Prime Ministers Boyko Borisov and Benjamin Netanyahu announced after the historic joint sitting of their Cabinets in Sofia.

After the joint sitting on Thursday, the governments of Bulgaria and Israel signed several bilateral agreements in fields such as economy, agriculture, and culture; bilateral deals in defense, however, are still being hammered out.

“We have not signed any defense agreements today but we are about to sign two agreements in defense and defense systems, and potentially on joint military drills. Negotiations are going on at the moment so when they become ready we will inform you,” Borisov told journalists during his joint news conference with Netanyahu in Sofia.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who was praised in Sofia by then Director of Mossad Meir Dagan in October 2010, assessed highly the cooperation between Bulgaria and Israel in the field of defense, security, and intelligence.

Bulgaria is an important country for Israel for a wide range of reasons – and the visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an eihgt-strong Cabinet team is evidence of the intensity of bilateral relations, ambassador Noah Gal Gendler told The Sofia Echo on the eve of the visit.

“Since the Government headed by Prime Minister Boiko Borissov was established, in the past three years, President Georgi Purvanov has visited Israel, President Shimon Peres has visited Bulgaria, and now the Prime Minister of Israel is coming to Bulgaria with eight of his ministers, almost half of our Government,” Gal Gendler says.

The last time an Israeli head of government visited Bulgaria was in 1991, when then-prime minister Yitzhak Shamir was here. The July 2011 visit is of an entirely different scale, of a government-to-government scale that Israel normally shares only with countries such as the United States, France, Italy and Germany; in relations with Jerusalem, it is a first for Bulgaria.

More evidence of excellent relations is in the significant number of ministerial visits, with Israel’s ministers of national infrastructure, social welfare, internal security and foreign affairs having been to Sofia and Bulgaria’s ministers of foreign affairs, social welfare, interior and agriculture having been to Israel.

The visit by Prime Minister Netanyahu – who has been to Bulgaria before as a deputy foreign minister and who continues to hold Bulgaria in high regard – will see important agreements signed: on military co-operation, research and development in the private sector and an amendment to the agreement on protection on private investments.

The military co-operation agreement will allow shared use of Bulgarian military facilities and air space for Israeli air force training exercises, to the benefit of both air forces.

Taken together, the three agreements will cover all necessary requirements for high-tech co-operation in civil and military areas.

…

Further agreements are in the works, with negotiations ongoing, including on co-operation in communication technologies, a maritime agreement, an Open Sky aviation agreement, cinema co-production and a programme for co-operation in education, culture and science.

“It is important to say that now all issues related to our bilateral relations are on the table. We can talk about everything: co-operation in economic affairs, technology, culture, political, military and defence co-operation.” He adds: “We see Bulgaria as a friendly country, even one that is a similar size to our own; we understand each other and so we can do a lot together”.

There is a further strategically important element in bilateral relations.

“Bulgaria, for us, is not only a part of the European Union but also a gateway to the Balkans. Given that Israel does not have diplomatic representation in all of the countries of the Balkans, Bulgaria is able to assist us a great deal in relations with the countries of the region.”

Economic matters

Israeli investments in Bulgaria, directly through Israeli companies or through Israeli-owned companies registered in other states in Europe, adds up to an estimated 1.5 billion euro.

“Mainly in real estate and construction – we have, in Bulgaria, more than 10 malls, logistics centres, business centres and thousands of apartments that either belong to or were built by Israelis. We are very satisfied with these numbers but at the same time, it’s not enough.”

Plans are to extend the scope of activities, mainly in investment in the field of medical services and high-tech co-operation “but when I talk about high-tech I am not talking about producing modems or computers, I am talking about R and D – laboratories, making connections among companies in the US, in Israel and in Bulgaria”.

…

With Israel’s finance minister participating in the visit, the country’s eagerness to share its experiences with Bulgaria will be borne out in talks with Bulgaria’s Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov.

Israel is negotiating with Greece and Cyprus about the development of a new natural gas system in the Middle East, Mediterranean and South Eastern Europe and “Bulgaria will definitely be part of this,” Gal Gendler says.

…

Ambition and optimism are the order of the day, from a bold plan based on an idea by President Peres, to bring together Israeli know-how, international money and Bulgarian resources to make this country the grain powerhouse of Europe, to the ambition to follow up the Netanyahu visit with an equivalent visit by Bulgaria in 2012.

“There is impressive co-operation between our two states and our two peoples,” Gal Gendler says.

The awarding ceremony to the military servicemen of the III Infantry Brigade of the Georgian Armed Forces has been held in Kutaisi today. “For participating in the international peacekeeping mission”, service and state rewards were granted to the 32nd Battalion and Infantry Company personnel participated in the ISAF mission. Defence Minister of Georgia Bacho Akhalaia, the leadership of GAF [Georgian Armed Forces] and a son of Colonel Ramaz Gogishvili deceased in Afghanistan awarded the soldiers.

1,019 military servicemen received Medals for participating in the international mission. Four soldiers were awarded by Vakhtang Gorgasali the III rank Order and 122 military servicemen were granted the state and service medals.

Georgia is one of the largest contributors per capita to the ISAF military operation ongoing under the aegis of NATO in Afghanistan. Initially, up to 50 military servicemen were deployed in the peacekeeping mission in 2004…Since November 16, 2009 the Georgian Peacekeeping Company has been undergoing the mission in Kabul as a part of the French peace contingent at the military base “Warehouse” of the Regional Command’s HQs.

From April of 2010, a total of 750 military servants of the 31st Infantry Battalion of the III Infantry Brigade of the GAF were sent to the province of Helmand, a southern province of Afghanistan.

The Georgian peace contingent was carrying out there a full spectrum of security operations side by side with the US military forces.

During November of 2010, the 31st Battalion, deployed in Afghanistan, was rotated by the 32nd Battalion of III Infantry Brigade. The 32nd Battalion returned in Georgia in May 2011.

Both battalions underwent 6 month intensive training in the Krtsanisi Training Center under the guidance of the Expeditionary Brigade of US Marine Corps.

The Battalion personnel also went through preparation in the US Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) based in the German city of Hohenfels. Georgian soldiers` preparedness level to engage in particular peace support operations in Afghanistan was positively evaluated by both the Center’s experts and the Trainers and Advisors Group of US marines.

John Beauchamp: Polish, French and German soldiers will join forces to create a special military unit, following the signing of an agreement in Brussels.

The so-called Weimar Combat Group (Weimarska Grupa Bojowa) will comprise of 1,700 soldiers, and is due to be be fully operational in 2013.

According to Major General Janusz Bojarski, Polish representative for the NATO military committee and the EU, the unit will be a strategic reserve of the EU, capable of taking up rapid response tasks.

“They will be appointed to perform any operations that might arise,” he revealed to Polish Radio. “The combat group could be activated in practically every crisis which the European Union finds itself in,” he continued.

“Such a situation could arise today or tomorrow, we cannot know when, but we must have some military instrument which will allow us to react to crisis situations,” Bojarski commented.

The unit takes its name from the Weimar Triangle, a political grouping of France, Germany and Poland that was formed in 1991 following the collapse of the Iron Curtain.

Following the signing of the agreement, specifics will now be finalised by experts from the three countries in question.

Kabul: Two NATO soldiers were killed and another injured in a shootout with a bodyguard for an official from a local intelligence agency in Afghanistan’s northern province of Panjshir on Saturday, an Afghan official said.

Deputy governor of Panjshir, Abdul Rahman Kabiri, confirmed the incident, saying the man stationed at the office of the National Directorate for Security had fired at the NATO Provincial Reconstruction Team members.

‘As a result, two soldiers were killed and another one injured.’

The injured soldier killed the man, who had been employed as a bodyguard for an NDS official, Kabiri said.

The soldiers were immediately evacuated by military helicopter from the district, he said.

‘We can confirm there has been a shooting incident involving ISAF soldiers in Panjshir province,’ said Major Tim James, spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

‘There are also been casualties on ISAF side,’ he said, without elaborating.

Afghan security guards have killed at least 57 coalition troops since 2007. This year alone, there has been at least eight incidents involving Afghan security personnel and Western allies.

-So far 55 security personnel had been killed and many more sustained injures in five cross-border attacks. These attacks had been carried out in Upper Dir, the Bajaur Agency and the Mohmand Agency in a month’s time.

NORTH WAZIRISTAN: Sixteen mortar shells fired from Afghanistan fell near a Pakistani military checkpost in North Waziristan on Friday. However, no casualty was reported in the incident.

The shells, fired by Nato-led forces, landed near the Wai post at Tehsil Ghulam Khan in North Waziristan Agency. Security officials said that these rockets were fired from the border Afghan province of Khost.

The Pakistani forces in the area returned the fire, due to which Nato and Afghan forces stopped firing rockets at Wai checkpost, which is situated a few kilometres from the border.

It is worth mentioning that the latest incident of rockets fired from inside Afghanistan has taken place a day after Pakistani, Afghan and Nato military officials had met in Peshawar, where they discussed cross-border attacks.

So far 55 security personnel had been killed and many more sustained injures in five cross-border attacks. These attacks had been carried out in Upper Dir, the Bajaur Agency and the Mohmand Agency in a month’s time.

Agencies add: Official sources said that shelling was carried out by Nato forces from the Afghan side of the border.

Residents were quoted as saying that around 18 mortar shells landed near a security forces checkpost.

MASTUNG: Miscreants opened fire on three NATO oil tankers along the Quetta-Sibi section Friday. Thousands of litres of petrol was spilled away.

According to details, three oil tankers were heading towards Afghanistan today. When these reached Kirri Dhor in Tehsil Dasht along the Quetta-Sibi section of national highway, miscreants opened fire on them. Bullets made holes in the tankers and the entire oil was spilled.

There was no report of any casualty or human loss. Miscreants ran away from the scene.

The protection of national interests and cooperation in the Arctic, as well as the delimitation of Polar Regions, has come under active discussion this past week. The NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has warned against unleashing a new cold war in the Arctic [sic]. Russia has again opted for peace dialogue. This country hopes that the expedition aboard the Academician Fyodorov research vessel that started on Monday will help ensure a fair border demarcation in the Arctic. The Voice of Russia has more.

In recent years, the Arctic has become one of the main geopolitical centres, says the Director of the Centre for European Security Tatyana Parkhalina in an interview with the Voice of Russia, and elaborates.

“Some countries grew keenly interested in the Arctic some five or six years ago,” Tatyana Parkhalina says. “The interest was prompted by global climate change and Arctic snow melting. Also, the region boasts important mineral resources. Those that are mostly interested are, of course, the Arctic states, of which Russia is one. NATO held a conference on the development of the Arctic in Reykjavik three years ago.”

New technologies likewise boost interest in the Arctic, since now it is possible to mine for hydrocarbons from the Arctic Seabed, (the region boasts at least a quarter of world deposits of hydrocarbons), and also o lay new cheaper sea routes. Great profits will shape an altogether different policy, one that may result in a military standoff, says the editor-in-chief of the National Defence magazine Igor Korotchenko, and elaborates.

“Global warming,” Igor Korotchenko says, “may result in new large ice-free water areas that could be used for free passage via the Arctic Ocean and for minimizing shipping costs. But internationally, Arctic territories are disputed, so the Arctic countries are building up their military might in the region. The United States, Canada and other polar states have drastically galvanized their effort to that end. Even China has been sending icebreaker expeditions to the Arctic now and again.”

China says it will commission a second icebreaker in 2013 to send expeditions to the Arctic and the Antarctic. Japan, Malaysia and Thailand have also shown interest in the Arctic and have even tried to impose their own terms of interaction in the region, says the Head of the Centre for North European and Baltic Research of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s MGIMO University, Lev Voronkov, and elaborates.

“The non-Arctic countries have no legal basis to claim the continental shelf,” Lev Voronkov says, “still they are eager to get their own piece of cake, so they are trying to create a new legal status for the Arctic, similar to the one that’s in effect in the Antarctic, – international governance. But this is at variance with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Under the Convention, it is only the coastal countries that have the right to the adjacent continental shelf.”

The recent developments prove the need for Russia’s speedy consolidation of the right to the part of the region that this country lays claim to. Under international law, it is only water from the Kola Peninsula to the Arctic Pole to the Bering Strait that Russia has the right to at present.

The Academician Fyodorov expedition will now have to prove that Russia also has the right to the shelf and therefore to the entrails. The expedition will last for two months, during which time scientists on board the vessel will take seismic measurements to determine the thickness of bed deposits. The results of the research, as well as those of last year’s expedition will underlie the report that Russia will submit to the United Nations in 2014 as a claim to the shelf. But Russia already has sufficient evidence to prove the possession of the shelf, since the issue was studied in Soviet times, says Professor, Doctor of Geology and Mineralogy Igor Davidenko, and elaborates.

“Back in 1984,” Igor Davidenko says, “the Soviet Union made public a map showing that two ridges are the continuation of our continent. This can be disputed now because a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since. But the right of primogeniture should be proven. We should lift earth material samples and compare them with those on the US and Greenland shores. And thus prove that the Lomonosov ridge is part of the Siberian structure.”

But it is not impossible that the world community may delay recognition of Russia’s right to the shelf. It already did so once, back in 2001, alleging the lack of evidence. Tatyana Parkahlina feels that this is due to the fact that the world traditionally grows cautious whenever Russia grows active.

“Russia has tried to establish its presence in the region, Tatyana Parkhalina says, by sending expeditions there. But the world community is afraid of a military and political development of the region.”

This past week has offered another graphic example of the western countries’ stand on Russia. First, the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the development of Arctic territories was one of Russia’s priorities.

“Russia will clearly build up its presence in the Arctic,” Vladimir Putin says. “We are open for dialogue with our neighbours in the Arctic region, of course, but we will defend our geopolitical interests firmly and consistently. We will set up border infrastructure, weather forecasting stations, as well as systems to monitor nature and bio-resources in the region.”

Putin also said Russia would add two more military brigades to the existing one in the Arctic. Canada responded in a matter of days by saying it would hold large-scale war games in the Arctic in August. This prompted some experts to describe the situation as the outbreak of another “Arctic”-cold war…

At present, Russia as an Arctic nation boasts a number of strategic advantages, such as a powerful icebreaker fleet that also comprises six nuclear-powered icebreakers; such as seaports and the entire required infrastructure to explore and develop the Arctic. The Northern Sea Route is Russia’s national asset and the shortest way from Europe to Asia. For this reason, Russia will play the core role in an Arctic settlement.

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I was thinking yesterday about how horrible it is that Germany calls its tanks, which it is selling to Saudi Arabia, which uses them to attack civilians, “leopards”, continuing its WW2 tradition of naming tanks after big cats (panthers, lions, tigers). German imperialism is back, and Nato couldn’t be happier.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who was praised in Sofia by then Director of Mossad Meir Dagan in October 2010, assessed highly the cooperation between Bulgaria and Israel in the field of defense, security, and intelligence.

Do the Bulgarian people have any say in this cosy relationship? Probably as much as the US,French, German and Italian people do ie none. This tiny belligerent nation has so much influence on North america and Europe that it can get away with any illegal activities, supported by wold leaders afraid to be considered even-handed in middle eastern affairs.

The news seems to be turning more and more against the Syrian and Libyan governments. In the last 12 hours a story which showed up disinformation about Syria disappeared from Infowars.com. Roughly in the same pace is a story, “Syrian forces ‘ordered to shoot to kill’” at http://www.infowars.com/syrian-forces-ordered-to-shoot-to-kill/ . The story tells that defectors from the Syrian armed forces had been given orders to shoot to kill protestors, thus appearing to confirm what the Western newsmedia has been saying about Syria.

On Google News, there is a story about how life is normalising in Benghazi under the area controlled by the ‘rebels’ (I can’t give the precise link to the YouTube broadcast — my apologies the google news link is below).

So, are there any grains of truth in what the mainstream media have been feeding us? I think it unlikely although the news seems to have become a self-fufilling prophecy. Have the besieged Libyan governments resorted to more and more desperate measures to hold on to power? Are the people in these countries now giving up hope that they can hold out against the west and now throwing in thwie lot wit the ‘rebels’?

Wherever the truth lies, I think it has to be dealt with.

Curent link to Google news, showing video of life apparently returnomng to normal in ‘rebel’ areas of Libya: